LAPD Blog Starts Getting Bloglike

The LAPD Blog received a lot of skeptical looks early on from people pointing out that a lot of the content was just their news releases posted in a blog format and with comments. Several people defended it noting that no one has a perfect blog on day one and it was going to take them a little while to get the feel for it. After reading a bit of it today I think they are definitely getting the hang of it.

While it’s still not lightning fast, they are responding to current events now. As everyone knows last week Paris Hilton was arrested for DUI and today Hollywood Patrol Division Commanding Officer, Captain Joseph Mariani has a statement about the booking, and the procedure followed. This is pretty cool, the actual captain of the division where she was busted has chimed in on the situation. But that is just top level, dig a little deeper and it gets even better.

Two weeks ago they posted a media release about an officer firing a non-tactical negligent discharge. This is a short piece about Officer Chris Walker who accidentally fired his gun while checking to see if his house was being broken into, but the comments are where it really gets interesting. Initially there were a bunch of complaints that this story would even be posted, to which staff blogger Lt. De La Torre pointed out the policy requiring that info to be made public. Shortly there after other officers started commenting, voicing their concerns and Deputy Chief Michel R. Moore came in and responded. While some of these officers are using fake names (for obvious reasons) it’s fantastic that their blog is allowing these discussions to even take place, duscussions that seem to have been hindred in the past.